With all that’s going on in the world these days, we’ve been staying close to home and spending a fair amount of time on the porch. Lots of dog time spent panting in the sun and a quick haircut for my father-in-law, William.
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I’ve been making photographs as part of an oral history for the Southern Foodways Alliance for a while now and they’ve published them, so I’m excited to share some of that work here. The oral history is called Faith and Foodways in Alabama and it examines how people find fellowship in their faith communities and what role food plays in that community, and the interviews were conducted by Michelle Little. I shot the bulk of the stories digitally but I brought along my 8x10 to bring a different perspective and to encourage myself to engage some of the portraits a bit differently.
Father Paul Costopoulos of Holy Trinity + Holy Cross Greek Orthodox Church here in Birmingham.
Fr. Paul has long been connected to the Greek food festival the church puts on here in Birmingham every year.
Rabbi Stephen Slater from Temple Beth-El here in Birmingham.
He’s got a fascinating story of how he came to rabbinical life by way of being raised in west Africa by Baptist missionary parents. Quite a road.
This is Lucy Heidorn whom I met at a Sacred Harp singing up at Old County Line Church in Corner, Ala.
Her family has been meeting at this place to host a Singing for a long time—in fact, Stephanie and I were there for the 100th anniversary of the gathering.
David Ivey not only has been attending singings since before he was one year old, he’s also the president of the Sacred Harp Musical Heritage Association. He and his wife travel nearly every weekend to attend singings, including this one at Old County Line Church.
Lucy Heidorn stands with members of her immediate and extended family in front of Old County Line Church, where the family has been singing, annually, for 100 years. We made this photo to go into their archive of family photos which documents their family’s connection to this place and activity.
More from these oral histories to come, soon. To hear interview clips and read the full interviews, find the SFA page here.
I’m so glad to be able to share a new body of work made for Hoar Construction.
Their whole philosophy is “always in process” and the process of making this work was a phenomenal collaboration with an incredible creative team and a trusting client. Clarity Studio brought me on to photograph the way Hoar works, from start to finish, and be the visual voice of the rebrand. We spent several days between their offices and job sites to tell the story of the people behind the projects they make and capture the feeling of their commitment to quality and the constant refinement of their process.
We had an overview of how we wanted everything to feel, visually, and I was given the freedom to photograph what jumped out at me (with safety advisers on-hand, of course) and I couldn’t be happier with how everything came together.
My thanks to David, David, Clay, Jessica, and the whole crew involved who made this such an incredible project to work on.
Bonus, my dear friend Bob Miller produced an incredible motion piece to go along with the brand launch. Be sure to watch that below.
Every winter I look forward to driving this road during the fog. It’s a path a travel almost daily, but it’s the best on mornings like these.
Thinking about our trip to Nepal last year. We visited a monastery the first day we got to Kathmandu and got to see some young monks early in training. The kiddos in the second shot were in week one of their journey.
David Strackany in Northern California back in 2007.
David Strackany toured then as Paleo and, incredibly, toured for for a whole year while writing, recording, and releasing a new song EVERY DAY, all while managing his own bookings and only rarely knowing exactly where he’d sleep any given night.
I met him in Birmingham at the late, great Bottletree Cafe and was immediately captivated. We ended up making some photos together later that night and the next day, and a few weeks later I ended up on tour with him along the west coast to document a part of his journey. From San Francisco to Seattle over the course of two weeks, I’d see first hand the amount of effort he put in to his daily practice.
The project that started on Easter in Florida, ended in Washington DC on Tax Day. David and I (and Taylor Bruce) got to tour the white house courtesy of Jared Ragland and the last show of the tour was still one of the more emotional performances I’ve seen—crossing the finish line of a 365 day ultramarathon.
Glad to have been a small part of that.
Billy Reid always looks sharp.
Ian Curcio
My friends Matthew Franklin Carter and Ian Curcio visited Birmingham this week for work so we took the opportunity to share a meal and make some plates. Plus I got to introduce a couple more dorks to the tintype process.
Matthew Franklin Carter
Chef Rob Connoley
I recently visited St. Louis for Covey Rise to check out what foraging wunderkind @chefrobconnoley was up to at his new restaurant Bulrush.
Rob was kind enough to show us a local foraging spot and how all this good stuff gets employed. Extra bonus was meeting Lexi, his pup whom he taught to forage with him.
From elderberries to sorrel to chanterelle and a million things in between, they’re digging deep into their ozark heritage at Bulrush, all while keeping their kitchen zero-waste.
Look for the new issue of @coveyrise for some recipes and more about Chef Rob Connoley and his team.
Beverage Director for Bulrush, Chris Voll
“Bald Fact”
Chanterelle-infused vodka
“Only Day-Dreams”
Elephant details from March 2019, Gandaki Predesh, Nepal.
This man is responsible for some of the tastiest meats one can find in America. Chefs all over clamor for his aged hams (and, for my money, he makes the tastiest bacon money can buy). And Allan Benton (seen here with wood for the smokers) may well be the nicest man you’ll meet. When we stopped in to Benton’s Smoky Mountain Country Hams a while back—just customers off the street—he took the time to tell us the history of his business and showed us how everything is made, step by step. Nearly an hour’s worth of touring us around and he still made the time to sit for a portrait for me.
Legendary hospitality and legendary smoked meats. They ship to basically everywhere…just sayin’.
We recently had the chance to celebrate a birthday with family up in rural Tennessee and we spent as much time as possible outside, including a little hike down to the water at Tims Ford State Park. Pretty sure Stephanie would live outside if it were plausible.
My friend Michael Curtis is one hell of an architect and I recently got to photograph a couple of his projects here in town. This Farmhouse is tucked away in the woods and it’s just magical and if Stephanie and I ever move I’m hoping to con him into designing it).
Also, we had Missie Crawford on set to put everything in its place and I’m always amazed at her appointments.
Just a quick bit of love for Samantha Tore real quick. I got to meet her back in February during the SFA winter symposium in Birmingham and I keep seeing her everywhere I look online, and in print. Her recipe is on the cover of Food & Wine at the moment (it’s a roasted curry tomato pie that, by all accounts I’ve read, is delicious).
Follow along with Sam at @tuktuklex and @browninthesouth.
Oh man. Last post I mentioned Birmingham Magazine’s Food Issue and I’d be remiss not to post about the feature I shot on Automatic Seafood & Oysters.
Chef Adam Evans made a name for himself in Atlanta and I’m so glad he returned home to Alabama because everything I’ve eaten from his kitchen is amazing. He owns Automatic with his wife Suzanne Humphries who is responsible for everything about how the place looks. She’s an ace designer and the restaurant shows it.
Follow along at @automaticseafood and by all means go quickly to eat there. So good.
I recently worked on a Seed to Plate story for Birmingham Magazine’s FOOD ISSUE and met some wonderful people along the way, not least of whom is Andrew Kesterson from Belle Meadow Farm (which he manages with his wife Laurie Beth). He handed me an ear of corn that is easily the tastiest I’ve ever had, and I ate it raw, right there in the field.
Their farm started out as 600 square foot garden plot on disused and abused farmland and now it’s nearly 10 acres of healthy soil producing loads of produce for local restaurants and farmers markets. In fact, some of that produce found its way onto the cover of the magazine (and it’s got to be one of my favorite covers I’ve contributed to, thanks in large part to the design of the creative director Nicole Gerrity). Follow along with the farm at @bellemeadowfarm.
Andrew Kesterson picking corn at Belle Meadow Farm outside Tuscaloosa, Ala.
Lot’s has been going on around here lately and I have a few things I want to post about while I have some down time. The first couple of stories are below.
First: I was honored to have the opportunity to travel down to Tampa to photograph a cover story for a People Magazine special Health issue. The story is about a woman called Jessica Kessler who has been suffering from chronic dry eye since her eye surgery a decade ago. Many thanks to Jessica and her family for giving us so much time and special thanks to Florence Nash for the project.
Just to get out of bed in the morning, Jessica has to coax her eyes open from being nearly glued to her eyelids.
I also recently had the chance to meet a remarkable guy right here in Alabama and make some photographs for Southwest’s inflight magazine (Southwest: The Magazine, imagine that). Rodney Smith Jr. started a foundation that provides lawn care free of charge. He’s having big impacts on his immediate community, but also taking his mission to every state. And most impressive to me, with his mentoring program, he’s inspiring countless children to serve the elderly, disabled, single parents, and veterans.
He seems to be all over the news, but if you happen to fly @southwestair some time soon, be sure to look for the story about him and his work (or you can read the story online here). And if you want to see where in the world he is right now, check him out at @rodneysmithjr and @raisingmenlawncareservice.
Quick shout out to @suazeone. The man is a musical library, brilliant producer, musician, father, and all around solid human. If you’re looking to stay in new music, he’s got a killer set each week on @substrateradio called The Pastime Paradise. Thanks for all your contributions to our city, AP.
I’ve been slowly working through images from Nepal and, seeing this shot, I think I may well be ready to eat some mo:mo:s.
We had these little dumplings all over the place and I’m amazed at how consistently they were flavored and how delicious they were. The good news is that we have a Nepalese place here in town, so that’s going to have to happen soon.
This past week, Jared and I served as artists in residence at the Wiregrass Museum of Art, during which we worked on our on-going landscape project, Where You Come From Is Gone, which follows sites of former Native American habitation and removal across Alabama. While we scouted for photographs to make, I grabbed this photo of Jared atop this small mountain of sandstone and kaolin rock located several miles down a dirt road deep in Henry County, Ala. pine forests.